Through trial and error, college students are having to figure out what constitutes as acceptable writing for every one of their separate classes all on their own without their ethnic backgrounds taken into consideration. While although Dave was considered privileged because of his years of experience in classrooms that consisted of teachers and students who shared similar social backgrounds, “students from diverse communities may need… teachers in the disciplines… [to] provide them with assignments and instructional support appropriate for first steps in using the language of their community” (262) McCarthy’s findings contribute to the notion, “learning to write… is not only a developmental process that occurs within an individual student, but also as a social process, that occurs in response to particular situations” (236). Although McCarthy only documents Dave as he takes this “journey across the curriculum”, her study is addressing the college student body as a whole. She declares that the success of a student is determined not only by their intelligence, but also their ability to adapt to a wide range of social and academic settings without any negative interference towards their
Everyone’s An Author with Readings by Andrea Lunsford, Michal Brody, Lisa Ede, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters; is about how everyday writing is very closely related to academic writing. This book discusses The Need for Rhetoric and Writing, Genres of Writing, The Role of Argument, Research, Style, and includes Readings. The text also bridges the gap between Facebook and academic writing, showing how some tactics students use in social media may also be used in their academic
It never occurred to me that they were even students to begin with. *** “We Grow Writers.” Yes, we do. The We is not a single teacher or a classroom, but of an entire city, a community that goes beyond lectures and workshops, classes and departments. The We goes back to almost 60 years.
“In fact, at times throughout history, the best authors were believed to have been chosen and directly inspired by God Himself”(Parrott, 71)Students and writers' idea of writing being a given gift is incorporated into their minds; this creates a large pressure and high expectation which leads them to feel unmotivated and inferior when comparing their work with others and not upholding to standards. Parrott exhibits how the lower social and financial status students are negatively affected by that ideology .“Students who were privileged to be of the right socioeconomic, national, or ethnic background already wrote to the university’s standards because they were part of the group in power who set the standards”(Parrott,72). The privileged rich and white students were considered the people who were born good writers since they already wrote at the college level but they only had that level of writing skills because they had more resources and tutors, these unmotivated lower-status students made them think they could never be good writers and ungifted. This mindset made writers dread writing and just wrote to get it over with the author states. “Essays were usually written once and were done, for good or ill”(Parrott,72).
When deciding what college to attend, there are several factors to consider. In chapter 1 of An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing: A Rhetoric and Reader, the authors discuss different types of colleges and universities, the purpose that college serves, fields of study, writing context, and academic writing. Understanding the differences between learning institutions, students are able to make the best choice when deciding where they should enroll. Chapter 1 also discusses the style writing that is required in college and how it varies compared to writing in other settings. Through these topics, students are able to learn what the expectations are of them at a collegiate level.
Not So Fast” Andrea Lunsford researched students’ writing for 30-plus years to see what effect new technology has on how students learn. Lunsford discovered that students are actually improving their own writing skills with the help of mass media. Not only does it allow students more access to educational resources and information, but it also encourages students to do more creative thinking and writing outside of class which Lunsford refers to in her article as “life writing.” In her research she recalls the account of a student who sent a friend a text message which was completely informal and would be considered unprofessional by most piers. However, the same student also sent a very formal and professional report to her faculty adviser later on.
Aull begins the chapter with a dramatic start, asking us to “consider the following sentences written by incoming college students,” which led to “Since the beginning of time, people have feared new technologies”(Aull, Pg.139) “Our culture today stresses perfection and nobody wants to be less than perfect”(Aull, Pg.139) “Pressure always brings out the worst in people”(Aull, Pg.139) “Every mature, established person has control over what they say and do”(Aull, Pg.139) In doing so Aull reveals the LOI by introducing examples of generalization in these students writing, thus giving the reader an expectation of the content and research to follow.
A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum, an essay in the journal
Most students in the United States go through their K- 12 schooling years not knowing how to write a proper essay. Most teachers are all about short cuts and getting papers done with the least amount of work as possible. This has led to college students not knowing the basic skills that professors assume they already know. With teachers avoiding teaching necessary writing skills and today’s technology creating shortcuts to use for everything, students are not only having trouble comprehending the English language, but also with writing grammatically correct essays. In the article “For $100k, You Would At Least Think That College Grads Could Write,” contributor George Leef expresses his opinion on the flaws in writing education in the United States.
In Mike Rose's 1985 Article, The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University, he discusses five misconceptions associated with composition in higher-education. He starts by explaining how educators judge students writing abilities from a quantify perspective based on the presence of errors. Then he breaks down the misinterpretation of writing as a tool rather than a discipline. As a result, universities implement courses to remediated students, a program which Rose calls into question. He also examines the proportion of students entering the academy that are consider academically illiterate.
In “Understanding the Gap Between High School and College Writing” , Cheryl Beil and Melinda A. Knight will analyze freshman college students’ attending George Washington University on their writing experience from high school and how teachers can improve their methods. Similar to Griffin’s analysis, Beil and Knight conducted a survey revealing how in high school these students never had a problem with writing essays, although they did struggle in critical reviews. Beil states, “Even though high school writing assignments had tended to be short, most students had not been expected to turn in drafts of assignments, and the feedback on drafts was minimal” (Beil & Knight 2). Students tend to take in what a teacher has to stay about their work,
In recent study done by Walter Bowne, a teacher of journalism, composition, and rhetoric for nearly twenty years, he realized that a writer’s true potential is not always shown when doing standardized testing writing prompts. These are the prompts that you might find while taking tests like the ACT, SAT, and PSAT. These prompts tell you what to write, how to write it, and the amount of time you have to do the writing. With that amount of rules and regulations, how are you supposed to have any freedom in your essays. We should have at least a little say in what we write.
In modern day life, writing is a necessity, which many people learn, but most never perfect. Learning to become a skilled writer is a very important process that I believe everyone should have insight on, since writing is a way for people to express themselves and their feelings on whichever they choose to write about. In The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year, it talks about what it was like for college freshman to start writing at a college pace. One quote from one the the featured students in this article that I could relate to was a quote by Lisa which said: “When you are not writing papers in a course, you take more of a tourist’s view of a subject because you don’t have to think in depth about any of the material.” In this
An article by California State University Long Beach, “Writing for Success” suggests that many students disregard academic writing and it is seen as a hindrance and a chore. Students often have feelings of dread as they struggle to write for their classes due to the belief their writing is not good enough to meet their expectations. In order to improve the confidence of writing within a student, it is imperative that one must learn that they are not alone and that their writing can be improved to meet their expectations. First of all, no one is alone with insecurities in writing abilities because everyone experiences it at a point in their life. Although it seems that people never struggled to get to a point of achievement, CSULB’s article “Writing for Success” demonstrates how social media never shows the progress that led an individual to where they are now.
This paper addresses the problem(s) confronting the students coming into writing centers bringing with them dissertations and proposals written in highly specialized genres. These words demand a higher level of writing skills that too frequently are not part of a writing center. The author’s findings are supported by separate surveys. The conclusions share the ideas of making the writing centers more efficient and up-to-date to meet the needs of all students across the college population.
